An Israeli medical team just returned home from Tanzania after performing life-saving cardiac surgery on ten children and treating hundreds more, The Jerusalem Post reported today.

An Israeli delegation of 20 doctors, nurses and medical technicians has returned from Tanzania after performing lifesaving heart surgery on more than 10 local children and examining hundreds more with congenital heart defects. …

Headed by surgeon Lior Sasson, the team was in Africa for a week to examine, treat and operate on children in Dar es Salam. Also on board was a young surgeon from Ethiopia whose name was given as Dr. Yaio. He has been undergoing advanced training at the Holon hospital, and in another three years he will return to Ethiopia to work as his country’s first pediatric cardiac surgeon.

Godfrey Goodwin, a pediatric heart surgeon from Tanzania who underwent six years of training with Save a Child’s Heart, was head of the Tanzanian team that worked with the Israelis. Goodwin returned to his native country two years ago. Since then, he and colleagues have independently treated local children with heart defects even though they still needed Israel’s help in coping with the huge number of children who need medical help.

Wolfson Medical Center’s Save a Child’s Heart program has an ongoing relationship with Tanzania to improve the level of pediatric cardiac care in the African nation. The president of the Republic of Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, thanked the Israeli medical team during their visit. Some of the children who were treated will be brought to Israel for surgery in the coming months.

Save A Child’s Heart was founded by the late Dr. Amiram Cohen, a native of Maryland, who started the organization in 1995 when he was contacted by an Ethiopian doctor to help with two children who desperately needed heart surgery. Since then, the organization has helped children all over the developing world receive cardiac care.

[Photo: Save a Child’s Heart / YouTube ]